


Take the Vessel

by end_alls



Category: Kingdom Hearts (Video Games)
Genre: F/M, even is there
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-11-10
Updated: 2019-11-10
Packaged: 2021-01-27 04:03:02
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 659
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/21385780
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/end_alls/pseuds/end_alls
Summary: Repliku wakes up in a new vessel and thinks they've given it to him instead of Naminé :( but it's ok I promise
Relationships: Naminé/Riku Replica (Kingdom Hearts)
Comments: 12
Kudos: 83





	Take the Vessel

“Can you hear me?”

As if the replica could ever forget_ Vexen’s_ voice, as long as he lived—

Lived.

He was supposed to be

The Riku replica’s eyes shot open, and sensation spread through him like lightning as he discovered muscles, fingers, lungs. Something beating inside his chest.

As the outside world gradually came into focus, the one inside him crumbled.

They’d given him the vessel

instead of her.

His jaw began to tremble, too badly for him to form words.

He wasn’t supposed to have anything more to say.

He had already said everything that needed to be said.

What had they _done._ His eyes searched the stark lab room for an answer, but it was empty, save him and_ Vexen. _Where was Riku _where was Riku_

“Riku—” he choked out. The name reverberated against the metal walls before fading back into silence between them.

“Is… that what you’d like to be called?” Vexen’s voice held a trepidation it never had before.

That’s right. That’s what he’d called him. What they’d all told him he _was._ He would’ve been angry, then. But none of that mattered compared to this.

The replica’s eyes bore into the scientist, but the eyes that looked back had been melted of all their ice, and now held a sorrowful,

guilty

glint.

“You’re all right,” Vexen went on, trying his best to smile. He looked tired. Old. And his emotions all seemed so real. “We’ve placed you inside a new vessel.”

“You— didn’t—” the replica managed, but his words were moving too slowly, trapped behind his tightened throat.

“Is something the matter with it?”

“You didn’t give it to her you were supposed to give it to _her!”_ Now they came too fast, spilling over like the tears in his eyes. The lapels of Vexen’s lab coat were already balled in his fists, but the replica couldn’t stop the torrents from coming. “I told him _it was for her how could you not give it to her!”_

His throat closed, choked by incoming sobs. This vessel was so real. So perfect. How could they have wasted it on him?

“I-I don’t understand—If you could just—” For once in his life, Vexen seemed to be at a loss for words. If he needed it spelled out for him, fine.

“Take—take me out.” The replica fought to keep his voice level. “I told Riku this vessel was for her.”

“I-I designed it for _you!”_ Vexen stammered. “This isn’t anyone else’s vessel—it’s yours, it’s all yours.”

The feeling left his hands, and the lab coat slipped from his grip. Vexen wasn’t making any sense. The replica stared on, frozen, as the scientist busied his trembling hands by using them to smooth out his ruffled clothes. “A-As if I would—I couldn’t just—”

Silence froze over the room for a few heavy moments, until it was broken by the sound of the door sliding open, and shattered completely by a sound he never thought he’d hear again.

“Riku!”

The world that had crumbled began to move in reverse, slowly rebuilding itself, stacking back up like a house of cards, all at the sound of her

the _sight of her_

the _light of her._

_Naminé._

Too fast, too soon, too close, she was next to him, and he drank in every impossibly beautiful feature of her face. A soft, shy smile that came out like sunlight through the curtain of her flaxen hair, and sea-blue eyes that looked at him like he _meant_ something. He’d memorized them all, but through this vessel’s eyes there were details he’d never noticed before—blond eyelashes, and freckles that were almost impossible to see.

This couldn’t be real. _He_ couldn’t be real. “I told him—I told him the world didn’t need—”

She put her hand on top of his, and as skin brushed skin, it was too real to deny. “Then it’s a good thing we didn’t listen, huh?”

**Author's Note:**

> Ienzo had to sit out for this one because it's ah... it's a bit too heavy for him
> 
> I was also thinking about how Repliku got an early replica body, and how it probably had a bunch of flaws that Vexen/Even took out in later models.
> 
> I'm on twitter at [toppiegames!](https://twitter.com/toppiegames)


End file.
